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Bordar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to embroider, embellish”.
Below are all of the conjugations for bordar in Spanish, in all three moods (indicative/indicativo, subjunctive/subjunctivo and imperative/imperativo) and all of the tenses, for each pronoun.
The vosotros pronoun is mainly used in mainland Spain, and is the informal second-person plural – it could be considered the Spanish version of “y’all”. It is rarely found in Latin America, where ustedes is used instead.
The vos form is used instead of tú in some Spanish speaking countries of South America, especially the Southern Cone (e.g. Argentina and Uruguay) and has a different conjugation.
| English Infinitive | to embroider, embellish |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | bordar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está bordando) and past continuous (estaba bordando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. embroidering).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he bordado and hubiera bordado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have embroidered).
| Gerundio / Gerund | bordando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | bordado |
The basic form of speech, el indicativo is used for making statements, talking about facts, events and things that are certain and objective.
The present tense is as it sounds – it’s for talking about things that are currently going on, which are habitual, or which generally exist. In English, this would be “I embroider” or “they embroider”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | bordo |
| Tú | bordas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | borda |
| Nosotros / as | bordamos |
| Vosotros / as | bordáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | bordan |
| Vos | bordás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I embroidered” or “she embroidered” in English.
In Spanish, there are two past tenses where just one is used in English; the pretérite infefinido is typically used to refer to a concrete, specific moment in time.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | bordé | I embroidered |
| Tú | bordaste | You embroidered |
| Él / Ella / Usted | bordó | He / she / you embroidered |
| Nosotros / as | bordamos | We embroidered |
| Vosotros / as | bordasteis | You embroidered |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | bordaron | They / you embroidered |
| Vos | bordaste | You embroidered |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was embroidering” or “she was embroidering” in English, and is typically used to describe things and set a scene, talk about events without a specific timeframe, or talk about habitual events or states in the past.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | bordaba | I was embroidering |
| Tú | bordabas | You were embroidering |
| Él / Ella / Usted | bordaba | He was / she was / you were embroidering |
| Nosotros / as | bordábamos | We were embroidering |
| Vosotros / as | bordabais | You were embroidering |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | bordaban | They / you were embroidering |
| Vos | bordabas | You were embroidering |
The perfect tense is for talking about things which happened in the past but are still related to the present or continue into the present.
In English, these use the auxiliary verbs ‘have’ and ‘has’ – i.e. “I have embroidered” and “she has embroidered”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he bordado | I have embroidered |
| Tú | has bordado | You have embroidered |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha bordado | He has / she has / you have embroidered |
| Nosotros / as | hemos bordado | We have embroidered |
| Vosotros / as | habéis bordado | You have embroidered |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han bordado | They / you have embroidered |
| Vos | has bordado | You have embroidered |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would embroider” or “she would embroider”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | bordaría | I would embroider |
| Tú | bordarías | You would embroider |
| Él / Ella / Usted | bordaría | He / she / you would embroider |
| Nosotros / as | bordaríamos | We would embroider |
| Vosotros / as | bordaríais | You would embroider |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | bordarían | They / you would embroider |
| Vos | bordarías | You would embroider |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will embroider” or “they will embroider”.
It is more commonly used for making a hypothesis about the present. To talk about the future, Spanish speakers frequently use “ir + a + infinivo”, e.g. “van a bordar” means “They are going to embroider”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | bordaré | I will embroider |
| Tú | bordarás | You will embroider |
| Él / Ella / Usted | bordará | He / she / you will embroider |
| Nosotros / as | bordaremos | We will embroider |
| Vosotros / as | bordaréis | You will embroider |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | bordarán | They / you will embroider |
| Vos | bordarás | You will embroider |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | borde |
| Tú | bordes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | borde |
| Nosotros / as | bordemos |
| Vosotros / as | bordéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | borden |
| Vos | bordes |
There are two ways to form the imperfect subjunctive.
The first option sees verbs ending in -era (for -er and -ir verbs) and -ara (for -ar verbs), while the second sees verbs ending in -ese (for -er and -ir verbs) and -ase (for -ar verbs).
There is no difference between these two forms, and Spanish speakers use them interchangeably.
| Pronoun | Spanish era/ara | Spanish ese/ase |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | bordara | bordase |
| Tú | bordaras | bordase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | bordara | bordase |
| Nosotros / as | bordáramos | bordásemos |
| Vosotros / as | bordarais | bordaseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | bordaran | bordasen |
| Vos | bordaras | bordase |
The future subjunctive is no longer used in modern-day Spanish, apart from in literary and legal contexts, and there is no need to learn it.
It is formed the same as the past/imperfect subjunctive, but with -e endings instead of -a endings.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | bordare |
| Tú | bordares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | bordare |
| Nosotros / as | bordáremos |
| Vosotros / as | bordareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | bordaren |
| Vos | bordares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “embroider!” and “don’t embroider!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | borda | no bordes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | borde | no borde |
| Nosotros / as | bordemos | no bordemos |
| Vosotros / as | bordad | no bordéis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | borden | no borden |
| Vos | bordá | no bordes |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya bordado |
| Tú | hayas bordado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya bordado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos bordado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis bordado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan bordado |
| Vos | hayas bordado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera bordado / hubiese bordado |
| Tú | hubieras bordado / hubieses bordado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera bordado / hubiese bordado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos bordado / hubiésemos bordado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais bordado / hubieseis bordado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran bordado / hubiesen bordado |
| Vos | hubieras bordado / hubieses bordado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere bordado |
| Tú | hubieres bordado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere bordado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos bordado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis bordado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren bordado |
| Vos | hubieres bordado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté bordando |
| Tú | estés bordando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté bordando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos bordando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis bordando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén bordando |
| Vos | estés bordando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera bordando / estuviese bordando |
| Tú | estuvieras bordando / estuvieses bordando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera bordando / estuviese bordando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos bordando / estuviésamos bordando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais bordando / estuvieseis bordando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera bordando / estuviese bordando |
| Vos | estuvieras bordando / estuvieses bordando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere bordando |
| Tú | estuvieres bordando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere bordando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos bordando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis bordando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere bordando |
| Vos | estuvieres bordando |
Voseo is the practice of using ‘vos’ instead of ‘tú’ as the second-person singular pronoun, and is common throughout much of South America.
There are various versions of ‘voseo’ used throughout the Spanish-speaking world. The conjugations for the most common type – used throughout Argentina, parts of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguya and Uruguay are below.
The present indicative (presente de indicativo) and affirmative imperative (imperativo) have different conjugations from the tú form, while all other tenses generally use the tú form.
| Tense | Vos Conjugation |
|---|---|
| Present Indicative Presente de Indicativo | Vos bordás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos bordaste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos bordabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos bordarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos bordarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos bordes |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos bordaras / Vos bordase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos bordá |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no bordes |